THE SHIPWRECK BY WILLIAM FALCONER EMBELLISHED WITH ENGRAVINGS FROM THE DESIGNS OF RICHᴰ. WESTALL R.A. [Illustration: R. Westall R.A. del. Chaˢ. Heath fc. _And,“Oh protect my Wife and Child!” he cries_—_Canto III._] LONDON; PRINTED FOR JOHN SHARPE, PICCADILLY. 1819. THE SHIPWRECK; BY WILLIAM FALCONER. quæque ipse miserrima vidi, Et quorum pars magna fui.—VIRG. ÆN. Lib. II. LONDON: PRINTED FOR JOHN SHARPE, PICCADILLY, BY C. WHITTINGHAM, CHISWICK. M DCCC XV III. CRITICAL OBSERVATIONS. The SHIPWRECK is one of those happy productions in which talent is seen in so exquisite adaptation to the nature of the subject, that it is difficult to determine whether the author is the most indebted to his subject, or the subject to the author. No one who had not passed through the circumstances which Falconer describes, could have painted them as he has done; and of the comparatively few who have had the opportunity of drinking in the fearful inspiration of such scenes, and survived to tell of them, Falconer is the first who appears to have possessed the genius requisite to retain and embody the impression, with the vigour of imagination and the fidelity of memory. It was not more necessary that he should be a poet, than that he should be a seaman. He was eminently both; and the Poem is as perfect in every technical excellence, as it is in respect to the simplicity of its plan, the classical elegance of its composition, and the pathos of its narrative. It is altogether a unique production.